The Doughty Women: Katherine - What Lies Behind Us: The World War 2 Sisters, #1

By Sierra Rose

This is a three book series. No cliff hangers! This is the story of three sisters living in Maryland as the disaster at Pearl Harbor looms, and their own participation during World War II. 

The Doughty Women: 
With Valor Above All 
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us. 
~ Oliver Wendall Holmes 

Book 1: The Doughty Women: Katherine 
What Lies Behind Us 
Katherine “Kit” becomes a war correspondent 

Book 2: The Doughty Women: Susan 
What Lies Before Us 
Susan is a “Government Girl” who joins a million other women working in Washington, D.C. “for the duration” until the men return. 

Book 3: The Doughty Women: Lillian 
What Lies Within Us 
Lillian is a Registered Nurse who joins the Navy Nurse Corps 

Book 1 blurb: 
While European governments were falling, one by one, to the war machine of the German Reich, Katherine Doughty served ably and well in her assignment as TranSignal News overseas correspondent. 

Now she has been transferred to the London Bureau, just in time to endure the privation and terror of the Blitzkreig bombs. 

Dedication to her craft can’t prevent Kit from feeling a twinge of envy for her friend, Hallie Vernon, an ATS member who falls in love semi-regularly every few weeks or so. Kit, too, would like to fall in love. 

However, she has finally met someone: a mystery man from the London tunnels, encountered one night when the wail of the air raid sirens sent citizens scrambling for safety. 

He’s a Texas charmer, this Lew McAllister, and it seems that he’s as interested in her as she is in him. But, after spending time together, he disappears without a word of apology or explanation. 

It’s wartime, after all; and the life of each human being has been disrupted. In all the confusion, people are here, there, and everywhere, and it’s difficult keeping track even of one’s nearest and dearest. 

Whatever has happened to Lew, whatever kind of mystery he’s gotten himself involved in, whatever sort of character flaws he might be dealing with, Kit can only feel suspicion and doubt. 

Yet she can’t help wondering if she will ever see him again. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dark Shadows Publishing
• Release date: Feb 21, 2016
• ISBN: 9781524224479

Book preview

The Doughty Women:

With Valor Above All

What lies behind us and what lies before us

are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Katherine

What Lies Behind Us

THIS IS A THREE BOOK series. No cliff hangers! This is the story of three sisters living in Maryland as the disaster at Pearl Harbor looms, and their own participation during World War II.

The Doughty Women:

With Valor Above All

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

Book 1: The Doughty Women: Katherine

What Lies Behind Us

Katherine Kit becomes a war correspondent

Book 2: The Doughty Women: Susan

What Lies Before Us

Susan is a Government Girl who joins a million other women working in Washington, D.C. for the duration until the men return.

Book 3: The Doughty Women: Lillian

What Lies Within Us

Lillian is a Registered Nurse who joins the Navy Nurse Corps

Book 1 blurb:

While European governments were falling, one by one, to the war machine of the German Reich, Katherine Doughty served ably and well in her assignment as TranSignal News overseas correspondent.

Now she has been transferred to the London Bureau, just in time to endure the privation and terror of the Blitzkreig bombs.

Dedication to her craft can’t prevent Kit from feeling a twinge of envy for her friend, Hallie Vernon, an ATS member who falls in love semi-regularly every few weeks or so. Kit, too, would like to fall in love.

However, she has finally met someone: a mystery man from the London tunnels, encountered one night when the wail of the air raid sirens sent citizens scrambling for safety.

He’s a Texas charmer, this Lew McAllister, and it seems that he’s as interested in her as she is in him. But, after spending time together, he disappears without a word of apology or explanation.

It’s wartime, after all; and the life of each human being has been disrupted. In all the confusion, people are here, there, and everywhere, and it’s difficult keeping track even of one’s nearest and dearest.

Whatever has happened to Lew, whatever kind of mystery he’s gotten himself involved in, whatever sort of character flaws he might be dealing with, Kit can only feel suspicion and doubt.

Yet she can’t help wondering if she will ever see him again.

C:\Users\chrissy\Documents\Banner The World War sisters large downsized.jpg

Chapter 1

(LONDON, ENGLAND; TSN)

1941 May 10-11: House of Commons Burns During Worst Air Raid Since Blitz Began

More than 1400 Londoners were killed, and another some 2000 were injured,

in this most recent attack whose destruction was spread across the city.

Bridges, factories, warehouses, and a railway line served as targets

for at least 500 German bombers in an attack that lasted seven hours.

While Hitler’s Operation Sealion was initiated to prepare for the German invasion,

the RAF has held its own against the Luftwaffe, which meant that date was indefinitely postponed.

Over the past eight months, some 1,000 high explosive bombs, 55 oil canister fire bombs,

11 parachute mines, and thousands of incendiaries have fallen over Westminster.

One Australian living in London said of Londoners at the time:

"Nothing in the air, on the earth, and on the water scares them.

They get annoyed but they never get scared.

I honestly believe that if 100 Nazi Paratroopers came down tonight in Piccadilly Circus

they would start queuing up to see how our Commandos are dealing with them."

IF KATHERINE TILTED her head slightly sideways, if she closed her eyes just a little, the view from her tiny flat’s window, overlooking the Thames, might just possibly compare to the view she had enjoyed for so long a time of living near Chesapeake Bay. Not that she was homesick, of course; after several years of rattling around the world, from one port to another, she felt no overwhelming desire to return to her roots in Serenity, Maryland. At least, not yet.

Of course, there was a moon’s span of difference between appreciating the freedom to travel and being trapped in one location, under circumstances not of one’s own choosing. But, still, wasn’t that her main reason for this most recent trip—those very circumstances?

Water was water, wherever you went. Here, exhaust fumes and an occasional dank, fishy odor had replaced the scent of salt air and sand she was used to. More noise, too, of a kind different from the screeching of seagulls or the deep-throated growl of seagoing vessels. Especially if you added in the blasting of bombs.

Hey, Kit! An outer door slammed; an inner door creaked. You in here, honey?

Hallie Vernon, the blonde buxom Betty Grable lookalike who shared this small space on the building’s top floor, swept into the room, kicked both shoes off her weary feet, and, without conscious thought, reached to turn a knob on their wireless. Immediately the smooth silvery notes of Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine, as performed by Artie Shaw’s orchestra, frisked through the air like a sweet caress.

Moments of peace and quiet were few to be found in a war-time city, Kit had discovered. Turning from her view three flights down upon London streets, bleak even despite the rare corner where fragrant lilac bloomed and caged trees stretched tentative spring branches upward, she smiled at the woman she had known such a short time yet could now claim as friend. Rough day?

They were a study in contrasts, these two, not only physically but in temperament: cool, steady Katherine, whose shoulder-length mop of curly black hair managed to escape any clasp; whose intelligent blue eyes looked out upon the world with wonder and curiosity; whose winter-white skin added color only as blush. Conversely, beautiful Hallie flaunted her sensuous curves in showy low-cut form-fitting garb that lured every nearby male into her bewitchery like bears to a honey pot. 

Humming along now with the music, Hallie sank into the closest chair and gratefully propped both legs atop a small faded pouf. Oh, man, yes. I am beat, she complained, wriggling freed stocking-clad toes in sheer delight. Those boys had me running around, one end of the place to the other, from the minute I walked inside till the minute I left. My poor dogs are killin’ me!

Since the height of the Blitzkrieg, between September 7 and early November of last year, when fire had rained down from the skies over London every night for nearly two consecutive months, Hallie had worked in the Auxiliary Territorial Service offices. There, the multi-talented employee did a little bit of everything, from pounding away at the keys of her Royal Standard with correspondence and requisition forms to supervising kitchen and cafeteria duties to checking in at the local hospital from her newly revised casualty list.

Shifting more comfortably on a small settee, Kit smoothed the skirts of her brown dotted-swiss frock into a sense of order. And how much work did all this involve?

Hallie grinned the wide infectious grin that drove men wild. That, and her golden pageboy and stunning figure. It wasn’t the work that got me down, she confessed. A few officers stopped by, and they persuaded us to clear the floor for dancing.

Oh, that must’ve improved morale.

Sure did. And you know how much I love doin’ the jitterbug and Lindy Hop.

Mental flash: a gramophone belting out the swing tunes of Glenn Miller’s Tuxedo Junction or his fox-trotting Slow Freight; The Breeze and I offered by Jimmy Dorsey; One O’Clock Jump from The King of Swing, Benny Goodman, and his Stompin’ at the Savoy.

And Hallie, with her shiny bob flashing, her short dress flouncing, and her red slingback pumps flirting.

No wonder your feet hurt, observed Kit, much amused.

Uh-huh. And, say, listen, her voice lowered conspiratorially, although there was no one else in the room to hear, I met a fellah.

Did you?

The amusement deepened. Hallie met a fellah at least once every few weeks, fell head over tin cups into a hot and heavy romance, then, without, apparently, a single regret, kissed the fellah goodbye when he left for war. There was something to be said for the temporary effect, without committing oneself to any single particular man for any indeterminate length of time. Hallie lived to take advantage of impermanence, and the excitement of the moment. Maybe, with the state of the world being so much in chaos, that wasn’t such a bad thing.

Cole Porter’s bouncy rhythms had long since segued into the haunting words sung by Frank Sinatra: Fools Rush In. Perfect. How fitting was that, for the room’s present mood?

Once in a while, Kit couldn’t help wondering, a trifle wistfully, if some great passion might not come along her way. Just by chance. Just to remind her that the bloom had not faded from the rose, that she was still a young, attractive woman with much to offer any potential suitor.

Although, there was that one chance encounter not long ago. With Llewellyn.

Yeah, and he’s cute, too. One of those skinny little Clark Gable mustaches, y’ know. And a swell dancer.

Uh-huh. And what’s the handle of this charmer?

Paul, murmured Hallie in a dreamy tone. "Paul Henderson. Not in the service, nor likely to be. Some sort of health problem that kept him here."

Oh? What does he do, then, to keep body and soul together?

A luscious pout of the full, scarlet-lipsticked mouth. Golly gee, Kit, I dunno. We didn’t get that far, we were havin’ too much fun.

"I see. Well, Hal, I’m sure you’ll find out more, next time you see him. You are seeing him again, aren’t you?"

Oh, betcher life. In fact, a quick glance at the silver watch on her wrist, and a quick scramble out of her chair, he’s invited me to dinner at Claridge’s, and I’m running late. Gotta clean up and change.

Dinner out? But I thought you were exhausted!

Well, sure, I am, honey. But when has that ever stopped me from spendin’ time with a gentleman? Especially when he’s paying? Hallie winked and started for the miniscule bathroom. What are your plans for the evening? she called, her voice muffled from behind the door.

After gratefully silencing the wireless, Kit had returned to the window, gazing down at what little she could see as evening drew in and lights were shuttered. I want to walk the streets. I want to talk to people. I want to write more about how the Blitz has affected everyone here, and how bravely they’ve contended with the horrors of war.

Very admirable, I’m sure! Hallie sang out above the rush of cool running water. Not very safe, though, Kit. I don’t think—glub!—don’t think you should be out on your own. Dark, and all. And you never know—glub!—when the next raid is coming in!

Well, I’ll be just as safe outdoors as you will be in your fancy restaurant, Kit retorted. We’re all of us taking chances every minute of every day, just going about our normal routine.

Do you ever wish you were back home in the States, Hallie, emerging wrapped in the folds of her bath towel, asked curiously, instead of stuck here in the middle of danger?

The thought crosses my mind every time I get a letter from my folks. They’re so worried about me, and they want me out of England. But they’ve hoped to see me settled down and married since I turned eighteen, so that’s nothing new. How do you feel about it?

The light signature floral scent that belonged to Hallie alone drifted out from her bedroom to tickle the nostrils of anyone within range. Coat hangers rattled in the closet as she searched for her favorite dressy blue dress, one splashed all over with white daisies; drawers slammed hastily shut on a spillage of lacy lingerie.

"You kiddin’ me? Nothing back in Idaho I wanna see ever again. Living here, under the threat of bombs falling on my head, is a cake walk